JULYJ29] LAHORE CONSPIRACY CASE

The Lahore Conspiracy and Saunders Murder Cases opened on the 10th July
1929 before Rai Saheb Pandit Srikishen, Special Magistrate, in the Lahore

Central Jail. All approaches to tŁe jail as far as the

Lahore Conspiracy Laurence Garden were strictly guarded by the police and
Case the streets were patrolled by "European sergeants on motor

cycles. As the accused were brought a large number of
youngmen, who had collected in the Jail Road, shouted "Long Live Revolution" etc.

There were in all 32 accused. Of this 7 turned approvers, 9 were abscond-
ing and the remaining 16 were being actually tried. All the accused had been in
police custody for about two months and a half ever since their arrest. The following
were the 16 accused :—

(1) Sukhdcv, a native of Lyallpur, arrested on April 15 in Lahore bomb factory.
(2) Kishorilal Ratan of Hoshiarpore bomb factory. (3) Sheo Varma arrested in
Shaharanpur. (4) Gayaprasad of Cawnpore arrested in Shaharanpur. (5) Jaidev
arrested in Shaharanpur. (6) Jatindra 2sath Das, Assistant Secretary, South
Calcutta Congress Committee, arrested in Calcutta. (7) Bhagat Singh arrested in
Delhi and a convict in the Assembly Bomb Case. (8) Kamal Nath Trivedi, a student
of Vidyasagar College, Calcutta arrested at Bettiah. (9) Batukeshwar Dutt, son of
G-. D. Dutt of Burdwan, Bengal, arrested in Delhi, a convict in the Assembly
Bomb Case. (10) Jatindra !Nath Sanyal of Allahabad arrested on July 4. (ll)
Agyaram of Sialkot District. (12) Desraj, student D. A. V. College Lahore. (13)
Pfemdutt of Gujrat, ex-student D. A. V. College Lahore. (14) Surendra Nath
Pandey, arrested in Cawnpore on July 8. (15) Mahabir Singh of Dist. Etah.
(16) Ajay Kumar Ghose arrested in Cawnpore on July 8.

The absconders according to the police were :—

(1) Bhagabati Charan of Lahore. (2) Yashpal of Dharamshala. (3) Bejoy
Kumar Sinha of Cawnpore. (4) Chandra Sekhar Azad of Bhilapore, Benares. (5)
Raghunath of Benares. (6) Kailash of Jhanshi. (7) Satgurdayal Avasthi of Cawn-
pore, arrested in May and subsequently bailed out now absconding.

The following were the approvers. They were granted Crown pardon and their
confessions recorded by the City Magistrate :—

(1) Joygopal arrested on April 15 in Lahore Bomb Factory. (2) Hansraj Vorah,
student Foreman Christian College Lahore. (3) Ramsaran Das of Karpurthala,
convicted to transportation in connection with the bomb outrage on His Excellency
the Viceroy Lord Hardinge in 1914, Lalit Mukherji son of an Allahabad advocate.
(5) Brahma Dutt arrested in Cawnpore. (6) Phauindra Ghose arrested in Calcutta.
(7) Monmohan Mukherji of Champaran.

Mr. George Trevor "Hamilton Harding, Senior Superintendent of police,
Lahore, was the main complainant in the case. Submitting a charge sheet
under Sections 121, 121-A, 122 and 123 LP.C. the complainant said that the accused
along with others had, at Lahore and other places in British India at various times
and occasions, commencing from the year 1924 and continuing up to the present
time of their arrest, been engaged in conspiracy to wage war against His Majesty
the King Emperor and to deprive him of the sovereignty of British India and to
overawe by criminal force the Government established by law in British India and
collect men, arms and amunitions for or otherwise make preparation for the s"aid
object and purpose. They further concealed the existence or the design to wage war
against the King Emperor, intending by snch concealment, to facilitate, ^or
knowing it to be likely that such concealment would facilitate, waging
of such war. With these objects these accused along with others formed a
party known as the "Hindusthan Republican Association" and the "Indian Republican
Army;?, and held their meeting at Lahore and other places in British India with a
view to overthrow by force the Government established by law in India and to
establish a Federated Republican Government in its stead.

Complainant further stated that the means devised to be adopted to attain these
objects were as follows -.—Collection of arms, men and amunitions and also money
for purchase of arms and munitions, the obtaining of money for the same purpose
by means of forcing and robbing banks and treasuries and by dacoities which nece-
ssarily involved murders, the manufacturing of explosive bombs for the purpose of
murders and to overawe the Government, murder of police- and other officials and
persons interested in or assisting- the administration of the Government of- British India^
of persons who obstructed the carrying out of the objects of conspiracy and persons
who proved obnoxious to their party, blowing up of trams, production, possession and